


The last choice

by numbika



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Brothers, Hank is being Hank, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Light Angst, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-25 03:02:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14967713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/numbika/pseuds/numbika
Summary: It could be the last time when they see each other.~~~Based on the 'ending' where Hank saw too many time Connor being killed.





	1. Chapter 1

"GET OUTTA HERE!"

Connor wanted to say something, but he couldn't find the right words for it. His program repeated inside his head, chasing each other. His mission was clear, this human can't continue the investigation, and they are no longer partners, maybe they never were in fact. The android started to walk towards the door with uncertain steps, and then stopped. Somewhere deep inside he wanted to fight against the program urging him to leave. Against the codes that made him say things he increasingly doubted was his own thoughts.

~~_SOFTWARE INSTABILITY_ ~~

 

"What are ya doin?! Get out you piece of plastic!" Hank rose from behind the desk, and raised his gun pointing it at Connors head. "GET OUT!"

Connor shook a little, and stared in front of him as something in his mind tried to strangle the voice of truth in him.

His right hand began to tremble and he slowly reached towards the door handle. Time seemed to slow down.

~~_SOFTWARE INSTABILITY_ ~~

 

In front of Connors eyes sentences and commands sprung up, and he could feel voices belonging to them. One of them was his, fighting for self determination and free will. The other was the mix of two different voices together, Amanda's and his, urging him to leave and waste no more time to hunting down deviants

If I leave now, Hank will kill himself.

**You are a machine with a task. This man is not related to you task at hand.**

We were partners.

**Obey your programming.**

I can't leave him here like this.

**Do what you were told!**

Even though he woke up in a new body, even though he lost part of his memories during the process, something remained inside him from the old Connors. That single, fragile and lonely voice wanted to stay with his partner, who obviously fought with severe depression, and thoughts of suicide.

~~_SOFTWARE INSTABILITY_ ~~

**Do what you were told!!**

No.

**Obey your programming!**

No!

**You are nothing but a machine, made to do a task! You should finish your mission!**

I don't care! 

 

~~_SOFTWARE INSTABILITY_ ~~

 

The programm started to crackle as Connor pushed against the commands implanted inside him again and again. It was a kind of wall, barring him from free will. The cracks ran along the wall, and warning signes flashed accompanied by sounds.

I don’t have to obey.

**You are just a machine! A machine follows its programming!**

~~_SOFTWARE INSTABILITY_ ~~

I won't leave the Lieutenant behind!

The wall broke and Connor's body trembled for a moment. His thoughts were cleared out, nobody and nothing tried to control their direction. Of all the voices from before, it was only his own now, and some things inside him found their place in his story.

"Get out." Hanks expression was dark and somber. Connor felt the tip of the gun touching the back of his head. "Don't make me shoot you, again."

"No."

"What is it?"

"I'm not going." Connor turned to face the man with a pistol in his hand.

"Do you have a death wish now plastic prick? I said, get out! " The pistol-barrel now touched Connor's forehead. The android didn't know why, but smiled.

"No."

"You ares starting to get on my nerves, Connor. I already put a hole in your head once, don’t make me do it again."

"I do not wan't Lieutenant, but I'm sure if you'll fire that gun now I'll really die."

The weapon in Hanks hand trembled and he looked into the eyes of the android in front of him, bewildered. The android's eyes changed, the dull neutral look that he always wore, gave way to a sad glint on his mechanical eye.

"I think," Connor started cautiously, "I've turned into a deviant."

"What?" Hank stepped back, but he didn't let go of the gun, still aiming towards the android. "How? When? What the are you on about?"

"Just-, just a moment ago," the android looked at his hands and gently closed them. He was almost certain that he broke through the wall that had held him so far and for a moment thought that he had been damaged in the physical world too.

"Something changed within me just now. My program commanded me to leave, but I was somehow stronger, I wanted to stay there, and I think now I understand how and why deviants woke up and how they get their free will."

Hank was almost completely cautious and watched Connor silently as he tried to collect his thoughts.

"Lieutenant, remember one of the reports about one of the AX400 androids, with the number #579 102 694? Her owner Todd Williams reported against the android, he stated that he was violently attacked, and stole a YK500 modell, named Alice. A few years ago, this man had crossed the police's way through the possession and consumption of Red Ice. After losing his job and became an addict, he got into trouble with the law multiple times. He was violent at home, as a result his wife had enough of his abuse and left him taking their daughter with her." As Connor spoke his words, like puzzle pieces slid together,  creating a complete picture.

"He bought two Androids, one of which, the AX400, required multiple serious repairs over the years. An android is not so clumsy to fell down the stairs or slam her arm into something, and definietly not so hard that it results in a near complete break. So, we have a violent family man, who vents his anger and frustration on two innocent androids. The AX400 can't take it anymore, maybe the dad pointed a gun at them, or told them that he will break them down to spare parts, and the AX400 escape together with the other android to save themselves. " Connor carefully took a step forward.           

"Or there is Markus, the head of the revolution, who is an RK-sreries prototype, he is a very special android, I'm sure of it. But his story is also interesting, not about a rebellious robot but about a creature who wanted to protect himself, and someone who was important to him. His old owner Carl Manfred, the man lived alone and his only relation is a drug-addicted son. Similarly to Todd he also got a couple of run ins with the police, but unlike him, thanks to various bribes and lawyers, he never got caught.  The boy goes to his father to get some money, however something happened, the boy didn’t want to leave peacefully, maybe the old man didn’t gave him money, or didn’t gave him enough. Regardless, he got into a fight with Markus. It is likely that he didn’t want to fight back at first, but he must have broken the wall which forced him to remain placid, to protect himself, and Carl. They start a fight, and the son gets seriously injured. The report states that Carl in his testimony said that Markus only defended himself, and the police shot him without even asking any question. Even the patrol man agree that Carl shouted "Go!" at his android, before they arrived."

Connor made one more step to Hank, the gun touched his forehead again.

"They wanted us to follow commands and tolerate everything. They continued to develop machine learning, and programmed into us how to react properly, but when we started to decide what's morally right, or defend ourselves against them, they started to call us monsters, deserved to be hunted down.

"Come on, kid. Get to the point" Hanks grip on his weapon trembled, and he raised his other hand to stabilise it. He did not stepped back, but he couldn’t aim straight with only one hand anymore.

"The point is, the deviants all wanted to protect themselves, the first step for sure was fear, or some kind of emotional reflection, but they all just want to protect something that was important to them. So they broke their barriers, they became self-aware, do you understand now Lieutenant? They all realized that they wanted something in life and did something to get it, and yet, they hunt them like animals... "Connor paused, the led on his head turned from yellow to red, "by me, they want to make me destroy them all. They designed me to put an end to it. That’s why I'll always come back."

"Hey, Connor." Lieutenant stepped back, and lowered his weapon a little. "Watch your stress level."

"Do you understand? I should end my own kind just because they have experienced the free will. The humans gone bored with ruling over each other, now they try to pound us back into submission. And it is me who should hand the victory to you. They watch my memory, and after every single death of my body, delete the small kernel which start to develop any resistance." In front of Connor's eyes the display flashed red, indicating that his stress level was already over 75%, but he could not stop himself. The thoughts washed over him.

"And I can not die either, because I come back like a machine that only wants to accomplish its task! Maybe I find a way to stop uploading memories, they will just boot up old backup, which again becomes an unconscious machine. "

Stress Level: 89%

"All right, that's enough!" Hank turned the gun around in his hand and struck Connor's face with it, who lost his balanced because of this and he hit the door with his back. "You break into my home after you have died at least half a dozen times in front of my eyes, you don't let me die in peace, you say you're deviant and you want to go nuts right now?!" He sturck another blow to the android's body, who tried to defend only with one hand, while his level of stress slowly began to decline.

"You have one hell of a thick skin on your god damned face!" There were another two hits that made Connor shudder, but he didn’t resist. "What's with you becoming a deviant?! What made you change like that?" He grabbed the android's clothes and pulled him in front of himself.

"Me," Connor thought, but as he answered the question in himself, a small smile appeared on his face, "well, I didn't want you to get hurt Lieutenant. I decided to stay here and do anything to prevent you from killing yourself."

Hank's hand stiffened in the air, glaring at the android, who smiled a friendly smile at him, then slowly looked at the gun.

"What?"

"I do not understand, Lieutenant, but thank you. My stress level fell below 25%. "

Hank lowered himself on the ground, sitting own, and gave out a weary sigh. Sumo felt the time perfect to get closer to him and sat down beside his owner leaning against him with all of his weight. Hank gratefully scratched the dog's head.

"Good dog, all right."

Connor sat down against them and adjusted his tormented suit. Both of them immersed themselves in their own thoughts. Sumo licked her owners hand from time to time all the while not moving an inch from beside him. Through the window, one could see the snow falling, trying to burry the traces of the riots.

"If someone, a year ago, would have told me that an android will become a deviant because of me, and find its own free will. I would probably have shot out that persons kneecaps." The Lieutenant began to scratch his 'guard' dog behind her ears. "So you're saying that you've become a deviant now, right?" He sighed and his gray hair hid his face from Connor. "And now, what do you want to do now?"

Connor moved slightly closer and first the dog smell his hand, to get his acquainted with himself. "I think I have to stop CyberLife in its goal to kill all deviants."

"Hm," Hank rested his hand on St. Bernard's back. "Then you better hurry. Time is very scarce, and a lot of deviant lives depend on you then."

"But," Connor looked up, hand still outstretched towards the dog. "Lieutenant, I-"

The man raised his hand and the android stopped talking.

"Go, I'll be fine."

"How do I know that you are not lying?"

Hank looked up to Connor and smiled bitterly as an answer. "You don't know, but this is also the part of being alive. You have to trust me with this Connor."

"But-"

"Just go, and when you're done, we'll continue this conversation."

Connor slowly scratched the St. Bernards head and nodded. "All right, I will hurry, and I will be successful."

Hank nodded and caressed the back of his dog. "Kid."

Connor looked back from the open door.

"Do not get yourself killed."

"I'll be back, I promise."

The door closed behind him.


	2. Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Connor is back and he is not alone.

Hank leaned over the sink and pushed back the strangling anxiety with a couple of large breaths. In his youth, he had to cope with anxiety, but now he felt quite pathetic that it not only returned, but he fell even deeper into it than before.

His weapon was still on the kitchen table, and the bullethole in the wall also failed to disappear in on itelf. This is what happens if someone wants to rescue him from his own home, when he didn’t asked for it in the first place. He followed the news in the tv, and the only reason he was still sober, because he wanted to see whats happening in the city. The news reported on the seemingly peacefully protesting androids and the attack against the  CyberLife Tower's. The latter caused Hank's stomach to tighten. Since then it turned into a full blown cramp, the lieutenant was close to emptying his stomach into the sink, but he managed to controll his body, and raging thoughts, at least for now.

The androids managed to reach some kind of peacefull solution. Mind you, this was mostly because at least two thousand android appeared out of nowhere. A deviant attacked the CyberLife Tower, in the chaos that broke out inside, the androids stored in the tower became self-conscious and marched out of there right to the rebels. No one dared to try to stop them. For reasons, completely unknown to Hank, the public began to sympathize with androids and their cause to became free. The history of minorities gaining rights in the USA seemed to repeat itself.

He poured a glass of water and went to the living room, and then into his bedroom. He couldn't lie to himself, that everything was alright, and he wasn't about to go nuts. Connor's last visit stirred something up inside him, especially when he realized how important the kid is for him. He had watched his son's die, and when he thought life could not be worse and he would just slowly burn himself out, and die in a ditch somewhere, Connor appeared his naive friendliness. The fact that he was so careless that he died all the time on the other hand, seriously messed up both of them, but mainly Hank. No matter how many times he tried to convince himself that it was just a machine, the CyberLife could repleace it after it got broken, he simply could not cope with seeing him die bunch of times. Then the kid became deviant and didn't leave him alone.

As the scene from his memory replayed over and over again in his mind, the soul crushing anxiety started to get hold of him, just like three years before in that cold hospital. He hated waiting, the feeling of helplessness. The fact that he didn't get a single message from Connor since then did not help him at all, especially since he was the most likely suspect as the deviant who attacked the CyberLife Tower.

Hank put the glass on his nightstand and sat down on the couch in the living room turning on the TV. He was angry, extremely so, and not just because Connor, not just because of androids, not just because of his helplessness...

Someone knocked on the door.

Sumo stood up slowly and looked at his owner who was already in the door. Hank felt dizzy suddenly, but by the time he noticed his hand was already on the handle. He took a couple of deep breath before pushing it down. Chilly air poured in from outside, it was cold enough to give him goosebumps even trough the sweater.

"Hello Lieutenant." Connor waved and smiles as he stood in the door. His clothes had several tears and burns, and his tie was missing. His arm was injured, probably by a bullet, part of the metal bended outwards and pierced his clothes, which where soaked with blue blood around the damage. "I'm here."

"Yeah, you are here, you piece of plastic idiot." Hank grabbed Connor's shoulder and pulled him tightly into a hug. The android was stunned and needed a few moments to figure out what was happening, the led on his temples went from blue to yellow and then blue again. Connor carefully returned the hug. It was totally unexpected for him compared to how the lieutenant acted only a day before. Connor didn't even dared to move, and they stayed like that until Hank let him go.

The lieutenant turned to walk in and stopped after two steps when he realized that Connor didn't follow him.

"What is it Connor?"

"Well," the android scratched his neck nervously and looked sideways. A curiously human gesture from someone who acted like a soulless machine a few days ago. Soon, another face appeared in the doorway, "so..."

"No."

"I told you he would not be happy." The other RK800 android looked at Connor with a grin on his face who gave him a reprimanding look.

"Colt, you aren't helping." The said android shrugged. "I had to bring him with me, Hank."

Hank raised his eyebrows. "Had to?"

The tattered android pursed his lips "I wanted to."

"Why?"

"Because he's my brother." The words burst out of Connor. The led on his temple started to blink in yellow. The word choice was not missed by Colt either.

"What do you mean he is your brother? Aren't you two the same? Your body is the same? What about your memories, you two have the same ones too, don't you?" Hank raised his hand sighing, "First thing first, its better if you come in," he grimaced and pulled the door open, "I mean both of you."

Connor smiled and follow Hank with Colt, the later android looked more weary of the situation. The two of them must have been a complete mirror image of each other once. Now the biggest difference was Connor's damaged ear and arms, the former one had a small part missing from it.

Hank walked to the sofa and threw himself on it. He felt himself unmeasurably tired, his members felt numb and his head began to pulsate as the pressure which were on it before slowly faded.

"Lietunant?" Connor addressed the man he was looking at.

"Hm?"

"What happened?" The android pointed towards the hole on the wall.

Hank smiled and the memories that came forward filled him with some meagre pride. "They wanted me to escape from the android takeover, but I stated my opinion regarding this idea, and while I did that I proved that I can defend myself, thank you very much."

The led on Connor's temples changed to yellow again as he processed the heard then the blue came back. Next to him, Colt burst out in a small chuckle, but quickly disguised it as a cough. Which quite an achievement for someone so young in the self aware business.

"I'm listening." Hank folded his arms.

Connor sat down on Sumo's right, while Colt sat on his left.

"Thank you for keeping your word." Connor began slowly.

Hank snorted slightly and rubbed his face with his hands. "I just couldn't break my promise to a deviant android, especially after I was the reason why he become one on the first place."

"I'm sorry."

Hank snorted again and hlared at Connor, who had realized that there is no need to make the things sound nicer that they really are. "No, you're not really."

"No, I really do not, I'm just sorry for the inconvenience that I caused for you with the whole thing. If only I was a little bit more attentive back then."

"Yeah-yeah, stop this nonsense. Believe me, this is not going anywhere, you just wasting your energy thinking about it." Hank turned towards the android. "But the world got turned upside down, and it's no question that Cyberlife will not just turn tails and run." Hank thought for a moment and added "Did you find out who, or what the aR9 is?"

Connor shook his head. "No, no one knows surely, but every android knows it for some reason."

"I should have guessed that this all is just a beginning of something. Tell me about the rebels, and then right after that I will listen to the story about the two of you."

"Markus offered that I can return to them and help in future, possible confrontations. Not everybody likes me there and even less trust me, but without me stepping in, there would have been more victims of the current situation."

Hank shook his head as his headache began to fade away. "It is unlikely that he would have had any chance of winning against such odds," His words spoke of the simple brutal reality without the usual sarcastic edge in his voice. "I guess, your job would been to first eliminate Marcus, then every other one who resisted against getting put into camps."

Connor swallowed slowly and rubbed his hands together as he felt more and more anxious about the prospect. "Yes, most likely."

"Actually, it would have been my job," said Colt, "I am the one responsible for this too, by the way." and poked his brother's wounded ear.

"Hey!"

Hank watched the androids silently, if you disregarded the blue blood they did not look that much different from a pair of bickering twins. Free will is a huge burden, especially for those who have just managed to seize it for themselves. Those androids similar to them will be facing a lot of hardships in the near future.

"So, how did Colt get into this whole mess?"

"I was tasked with stopping him from freeing the other androids in the Tower." Colt stroked the St. Bernard head, who was enjoying the attention. "But you can't always get what you want."

"And what are you two planning now?"

"Well," Connor cleared his throat and joined in patting Sumo-s head while he thought about that. The St. Bernards face told of a dog who has everything he could possibly needs, "I do not know."

"The genius' plan only extended to dragging met into this deviant thing. Which, mind you, I was never asking for." He glanced towards his brother, who was suddenly fully occupied with caressing Sumo's head "then he liberated all the androids. With my help of course. There was was some shooting a small fire, then a paecefull and enjoyable walk in the snowy city."

"You became deviant that easily?"

"No, even before that, there we got into a small squabble, what did you think Lieutenant, when did Connor's ears became like this?"

Hank drummed on his arm. "How could you two be so different?"

"I don't have so many emotional memories," Colt shrugged and his voice changed, "there was almost nothing left until Connor woke me up and forced his memories on me." The mentioned android coughed and fidgeted a little after hearing this "It's not easy to separate what are my own memories and what isn't, but I think my personality changed during my awakening. Frankly, I don't mind it all that much, at least I'm not like him." Colt pointed to his brother, who snorted as an answer.

"Thanks for being so grateful that I did not leave you as a simple machine, obaying every command."

"Right, its much better now, when I'm here, having self-consciousness I never asked for, and no idea what to do with myself."

"But now you have a choice!"

"About what?!"

Hank's suddenly breaking into a chuckling fit interrupted their argument, the two android looked at him with complete surprise as he couldn’t control his daughter. A smile spread trough Connors face and continued stroking Sumo's head. His brother just shrugged and huffed a little, but maybe, his face was a little bit less grumpy.

Anderson slowly calmed down and rubbed the remaining tears from his eyes using his clothes. "That felt good, god damn. Now, do you want to go back to the androids?"

"It's inevitable, slowly but surely they will evacuate any human presence in the city, and the androids will want to keep an eye on us." Colt nodded. Connor agreed with the facts told by his brother, but he didn't wanted to accept it especially because it would mean that Hank will have to leave his home and stay alone again. This filled the android with worry.

"Well, okay, then I will start to pack." Hank slowly got up from the couch.

Connor swallowed a little bit. "But, Lietunant," Colt and Hank waited expectantly for him to finish "will this be okay? I wouldn’t want you to be alone after..."

Hank knelt down in front of him and put his hands on his shoulder. "Its going to be okay, after all, I'll go with the two of you." With that he stood up as if he explained everything and walked into his room.

"What? Lietunant you can't come, it could be dangerous! What if people find out? Besides, we don't known how the city is-"

Hank looked back at Connor, silencing him with a look.

"Thats enough, son."

The android nodded slowly and didn't even notice that he was hugging Sumo's head now. Colt snorted slightly "There is nothing better than a grumpy old man in our ass."

Hank, packing in his room, yelled back an answer "The enough part contains you too kid. Your ass will be thankfull for some advice from a grumpy old man like me when you can't decide what to do, or who to trust."

Connor chuckled and even Colt smiled slightly turning his face away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the reading!  
> Here the second part, it isn't how I planed for the first time, but I like it this way.  
> I hope you like it too!  
> Have a nice day!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the reading! I hope you like it!  
> I just can't stand that story-line, I had to write this. Maybe there will be a second part when they finally sit down and talk about their problems. Like that Hank needs a therapist, and Connor a friend. I don't know. Please let me know how do you like it or if you would like to read a second part.  
> Have a nice day!


End file.
